Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) was the strongest rider in the finale of today's first stage of the Tour of Denmarjk but the Dane was unable to leave behind his two compatriots Magnus Cort (Team Cult) and Nikola Aistrup (Concordia-Riwal). In the end he had to settle for third and while that left him disappointed, he was happy to show his strength on home soil.

Lars Bak made use of his post-Tour condition to leave behind a speedy peloton inside the final 10km of the sprinter-friendly first stage of the Tour of Denmark and bridged across to the early break. He left behind most of the early escapees but couldn't get rid of Magnus Cort and Nikola Aistrup.

With clear GC ambitions in his big home race, Bak dug deep to keep the peloton at bay and ended up gaining 10 seconds and a further 4 bonus seconds to his main rivals for the overall. However, his companions refused to take their share of the chase work and so they had no trouble leaving their most famous compatriot behind in the sprint.

Afterwards, Bak was left a bit disappointed but also enjoyed the atmosphere in his home country.

“I was very motivated because a lot of friends, family and fans were cheering along the side of the road," he said. "The race was dominated by six escapees. In the bunch Omega Pharma – Quick-Step and Saxo-Tinkoff were controlling the situation. In the last 30km, Belkin and Omega Pharma – Quick-Step tried to split up the pack, but they didn’t succeed. At 15km from the finish I took my chance to attack. In the end there were three laps of 3.4km on a local circuit, so I knew a lot of people would see me and support me. When I reached the leaders I tried to leave them behind, but didn’t manage to shake Magnus Cort Nielsen and Nikola Aistrup off. During the last 6km I went full gas but unfortunately they could beat me in the sprint."

"On the one hand I’m a bit disappointed but on the other hand I think it was an amazing race with a great atmosphere. It’s also really nice that there were three Danes on the podium today.”

With his time gains, Bak has set himself well up for a high overall result and will probably try to recover from today's efforts in tomorrow's second stage which should finish in an uphill sprint. The crucial stages come a little later with the queen stage taking place on Friday and a tough uphill finish and the decisive time trial making for a difficult set of half-stages on Saturday.